Two health literacy sources

I've been following the MLA conference (in Honolulu!) via Twitter this year (hashtag: #mla09). I'm enjoying all the commentary, presentations and new sources shared by conference participants. One new site came to my attention via the Twitter feed: MLA's new Health Literacy Resource webpage. According to the MLA's website:

The popular media and professional journals alike are increasingly
carrying reports and studies of the difficulties and frustrations health
professionals and patients face in coping with the barrage of available
information in a way that results in informed health care decisions.

There is a huge need to bring sense to the information universe if MLA's
vision of "quality information for improved health" is to be achieved. There is
at the same time a significant gap in the awareness by the public and by
opinion-leaders and decision-makers of the contributions that health sciences
librarians can make (and are making) to bring order to the chaos.

Resources are divided into two sections- resources for health and information professionals, and information for health consumers. Resources for librarians include a fully-developed curriculum, including two PowerPoint presentations and supporting materials, ready-to-go training materials from the NIH SeniorHealth team, and other resources and tips for delivering effective health literacy instruction.

Resources for health consumers include a consumer health library directory, a "medical-ese to English" dictionary, and other government consumer health information presented in easy-to-digest form for adults and seniors (no materials for teens).

Second health resource: MedlinePlus in Spanish. I did not know about this and I'm glad that I do. MedlinePlus is my favorite source of authoratative consumer health information, and I'm seeing more and more Spanish-speaking patrons at the reference desk. Great work from NIH.